Lesson 2 THE FATHER OF THE CENTURY (1)

Dick Hoyt is not the average father. He has pushed his son, Rick, in a wheelchair in 85 marathons. Eight times he has pushed Rick 42.2 kilometers, swum 3.85 kilometers pulling Rick in a small boat, and pedaled 180.2 kilometers with Rick seated in a chair at the front of the bike – all in the same day! Not only that, Dick has gone mountain climbing with Rick on his back, and he has pulled him in a cross-country race.

This story of love began in Massachusetts in 1962. It was the year when Rick was born with his brain damaged. He was unable to speak.
“He’ll never think of or move for the rest of his life,” doctors told Dick and his wife when Rick was just 9 months old. “Put him in an institution.” But Hoyt refused to do so.

“There’s nothing going on in his brain,” researchers at a university told Rick’s parents when he was 11. But the truth was that a lot was going on. With a computer that he could control by touching a switch, Rick was finally able to communicate. His first words were “Go Bruins!”
One day, a high school classmate was seriously injured in an accident, and the school organized a charity run for him. “Dad,” Rick typed with the side of his head knocking on the switch. “I want to do that.” Dick had never run more than 2 kilometers at a time. Still, he tried. “After the run, it was me who was disabled,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”

The charity run changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

That sentence changed his father’s life. From that time on, Dick tried to give Rick that “feeling” as often as he could.

In 1979, Dick and Rick thought they were ready to enter the Boston Marathon. But race officials said no. In 1983, they ran another marathon so fast that they were allowed to join the Boston Marathon the following year.
Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not try a triathlon?” Dick had not ridden a bike since he was 6, but he still he tried. For what? Dick’s answer is that he does it to see Rick’s smile. “It gives me an awesome feeling,” Dick says.

Dick and Rick were at their best in 1992. At ages 52 and 30, they finished a marathon with a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes. It was only 35 minutes off the world record achieved by a runner who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair.
“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”
In 2003, Dick had a mild heart attack during a race. He survived only because he was amazingly strong. It was the result of running with Rick. So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

On Father’s Day in 2005, Rick bought his father dinner. However, the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. “My dream is that my dad sits in the chair and I push him once, “Rick types.